Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg Honor Oscar de la Renta

Hillary Clinton on Thursday at Grand Central Terminal during a dedication ceremony for a series of stamps honoring the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.CreditCreditShannon Stapleton/Reuters

By Valeriya Safronova

Feb. 16, 2017

The final day of New York Fashion Week was meant to be the quietest, with just one big show on the schedule Thursday afternoon.

But at 11 a.m., at Grand Central Terminal, an event was held that drew Diane von Furstenberg, Valentino Garavani, Anna Wintour, Michael R. Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton to Vanderbilt Hall. It was not a runway show or an exclusive party, but rather a first-day-of-issue ceremony dedicated to the inspiration for the Postal Service’s newest stamp collection: the designer Oscar de la Renta.

Police officers and security personnel were out in full force, telling a gathering crowd to disperse under the orders of a fire marshal.

Speaking of Mr. de la Renta, Mrs. Clinton reflected on their friendship, recalling the first time she met him as a first lady, and the times Mr. de la Renta and his wife, Annette, hosted Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in the Dominican Republic, where Mr. de la Renta was born. (He left for Spain when he was 19 and moved to New York in 1963.)

As personal as her remarks were, they were also pointed. Indeed, Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, made a point of highlighting the importance of Mr. de la Renta’s foreign roots. “Oscar de la Renta was an immigrant,” she said. “And aren’t we proud and grateful that he was?”

She later added, “What a fitting person to be chosen by our Postal Service, mentioned by the way in our Constitution, something we should all read and reread in today’s times.”

Though Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, began on a light note, saying that when he was invited to speak, his first thought was about what he should wear (“dark blue or darker blue?”), he dedicated a large portion of his speech to Mr. de la Renta’s foreign-born status as well.

Referring to the stamps — 10 of which feature patterns from Mr. de la Renta’s designs and one of which is a portrait of him — Mr. Bloomberg said, “I hope they remind people of the extraordinary contributions immigrants make to our city and our country every single day.”

Ms. Wintour’s speech was the most intimate of the three, as the editor of Vogue recalled her early-morning phone calls with Mr. de la Renta and their close relationship. “I admired and adored him,” she said, her voice breaking.

Of course, she added, it was slightly ironic that Mr. de la Renta was getting his own stamp since, she said, “In all of the years I knew Oscar, I never once saw him write a letter.”